Cutter crew maintains operational readiness

Posted by PAC David Mosley, Thursday, October 25, 2012

The cutter is named for an island off the coast of North Carolina. There are six additional 110-foot Island-class patrol boats based in Alaska: the Anacapa in Petersburg, the Liberty in Juneau, the Mustang in Seward, the Long Island in Valdez and the Naushon and Chandeleur in Ketchikan.The Coast Guard Cutter Roanoke Island sits at the Coast Guard Base Ketchikan, Alaska, floating pier after finishing a ship overhaul at the dry dock facility located there Oct. 22, 2012. The cutter received a lengthy overhaul which lasted more than 135 days which included the cutter’s mess deck, galley, aft berthing area and Chief Petty Officer’s bathroom facilities to be completely gutted and replaced.U.S. Coast Guard photo

During the life of a Coast Guard cutter, there are continual updates and preventative maintenance requirements preformed to ensure the vessel is ready to respond when called upon.

However, despite the dedicated efforts of the ship’s crew to maintain the cutter, it will still need to undergo a major overhaul on a periodic basis. The Coast Guard Cutter Roanoke Island has just finished receiving one such overhaul.

The 110-foot Island-class patrol boat, homeported in Homer, Alaska, just completed a major, 135-day long, maintenance overhaul at the Coast Guard dry dock in Ketchikan. This overhaul updated the ships systems to ensure it can continue to meet its mission requirements until its scheduled replacement by one of the Coast Guard’s new fast response cutters.

“This should be the last major overhaul for the ship and having it finished is a weight off of the shoulders of the crew,” said Lt. Steven Arnwine, the Roanoke Island’s commanding officer. “Having a ship that has recently undergone major repairs and updates allows the crew to focus more on the missions and on families (while in port) instead of always worrying about making repairs to stay operational.”

The cutter underwent a laundry list of known repairs and a few unscheduled ones as well. The cutter’s mess deck, galley, aft berthing area and Chief Petty Officer’s bathroom facilities were completely gutted and replaced. The davit used to launch and recover the cutter’s small boat was also replaced.

Additionally, yard workers gave the cutter a new paint job, made repairs to its hull, replaced several sections of pipe and cleaned and inspected storage tanks onboard.

“They also fixed our water making capabilities, a necessary shipboard capability that had been broken for some time,” said Arnwine. “One surprise was they ended up having to rebuild the aft berthing area, this was not on the list, but inspections here in the yard reveled issues that had to be fixed.”

Arnwine added that he had been through several ship overhauls before, including one for another patrol boat and the Coast Guard’s facility in Ketchikan is the best dry dock out of all that facilities he has visited.

The cutter is now back in the water and undergoing some final updates before setting sail for home.

After leaving Ketchikan, the crew will resume their fisheries enforcement, maritime security, boating safety and search and rescue missions in Southcentral Alaska.

The cutter is named for an island off the coast of North Carolina. There are six additional 110-foot Island-class patrol boats based in Alaska: the Anacapa in Petersburg, the Liberty in Juneau, the Mustang in Seward, the Long Island in Valdez and the Naushon and Chandeleur in Ketchikan.

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